Cameroonian journalist jailed on defamation charge

New York, March 28, 2013--An appellate court in Cameroon should
overturn the defamation conviction and jail sentence handed to a newspaper
editor on Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

A criminal court judge in Douala, the commercial capital, sentenced Jean-Marie Tchatchouang, editor of the weekly Paroles, to two months in prison, and ordered him to pay damages of 2 million CFA francs (US$3,900) to Jean Ernest Ngallè Bibéhé, CEO of Socatur, a bus company in Douala, defense lawyer Alain Zogo told CPJ. The journalist was also fined 435,910 CFA francs (US$852), Zogo said.

On the
judge's orders, Tchatchouang was jailed immediately in New Bell Prison in
Douala, Emmanuel
Ekouli, the head of the Association of Young Reporters of Cameroon, a local
press group, told CPJ. However, under Cameroon's criminal code, defendants are
eligible for bail in prison terms of less than one year, Zogo said. The defense has filed a petition
requesting the journalist's release on bail, and intends to appeal the
conviction, he said.

Bibéhé filed two criminal defamation lawsuits against Tchatchouang in connection with a series of articles
published in Paroles in November and
December 2010 that covered widely reported allegations of embezzlement and
abusive labor practices against Bibéhé
and his wife, Socatur's human resources manager, according to Zogo and local
journalists. Bibéhé and his wife have denied the accusations.

Monday's sentence was a result of Bibéhé's second complaint. The
first complaint led to a judge convicting Tchatchouang of defamation in
March 2011 and sentencing him
to a six-month suspended jail term in connection with different articles on the
same topic. The judge also ordered Paroles
to be banned. Tchatchouang appealed the sentence, and the trial will begin
April 4, Zogo said. Paroles is still
publishing.

"Cameroonian
public figures have long used criminal defamation laws to silence their critics
and Jean-Marie Tchatchouang is the
most recent to be targeted," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed
Keita. "We call on the courts to grant him bail
pending his appeal and to eventually overturn his conviction. Cases of
defamation should be tried in civil, not criminal courts."

For more data and analysis on Cameroon, visit CPJ's
Cameroon page here.